Neighbors thought they saw Colleyville synagogue suspect on bike day before standoff

A resident in the neighborhood near Congregation Beth Israel said she saw a man fitting the description of the hostage-taker on a bike near the synagogue the day before the standoff.

Colleyville police recovered a beat-up mountain bike on Sunday that they said belonged to the suspect. They turned it over to the FBI, chief Michael Miller said Wednesday. The bike was found at a soccer field at L.D. Lockett and Pleasant Run roads, near the synagogue.

Lori Stacy, who lives on Hunter Lane right behind the synagogue, said she was coming home from running errands on Friday when she saw a dark-haired man with a beard, two backpacks and a bike standing near a lot with an vacant house next to the synagogue. She said the man speaking to someone, but could not recall what the person looked like.

Stacy remembers thinking it was weird because there’s no bike path or sidewalk on that side of the road, but didn’t pay it much attention. Her husband also recalled seeing the man.

On Saturday, 44-year-old British citizen Malik Faisal Akram took four hostages in an 11-hour standoff before being killed by the FBI. All hostages escaped unharmed.

“You notice in your mind but you don’t think too much about it until something like this happens, then you start to think, ‘I wonder if that was him. I wonder if he was pacing the place,’” Stacy told the Star-Telegram Wednesday afternoon via phone.

Stacy said she called the Colleyville Police Department to report what she saw.

Stacy and her neighbors have been checking their doorbell cameras to see they captured him walking down their streets, but that no one she knows has seen anything.

“We’re wondering, where did he stay the night?” Stacy said. “Did he stay the night in that house next to the synagogue? Where did he sleep? Did he sleep at the soccer field? No matter what, it’s very close to where we all are, where our children are sleeping and going out at night with our friends and things.”

In the close-knit neighborhood, Stacy said if they see someone driving down the street who doesn’t look familiar, they’ll talk to each other to find out who it is. No neighbors said anything about Akram, she said, and neighbors are still talking about what happened.

“It’s not done for us,” Stacy said. “Mentally, I think we’re all still processing it.”